Cross-linguistic interactions in second language prosody

The project aims at contributing to our understanding of L2 prosody by investigating the production and perception of intonation for information structuring in two L2 varieties of English. The varieties under consideration are L2 English with German as L1 and Black South African English (thus, with one of the South African Bantu languages as L1).

On the one hand, the project has the descriptive goal of providing empirical data on prosody used for information structuring, contributing both to language-specific description as well as to cross-linguistic comparison. Cross-linguistic comparison is ensured by following a comparable methodological protocol in data elicitation and analysis in the varieties under investigation.

On the other hand, the project aims at modelling intonational production and processing in L2 prosody. The starting point is the recent claim that there are similarities in segmental and suprasegmental learning (Trofimovich & Baker 2006), an extension of the Speech Learning Model (SLM; Flege 1995). A basic tenet of the SLM is that new category formation, and thus ultimate attainment, is easier between phonological systems that are different from each other than between systems that are similar. Individual studies suggest, though, that this is not the case for intonation related to information structuring. Hence, the first theoretical goal of the project is to test systematically if the SLM also holds for prosody related to information structure.

Second, a model of L2 prosody will be developed, which takes phonological differences in prosodic systems into consideration. Therefore, two L2 varieties of English have been chosen in which the respective L1s have different prosodic systems: the German prosodic system is similar to English with word stress, pitch accents, deaccentuation and boundary tones, whereas South African Bantu languages have a dissimilar prosodic system with lexical and grammatical tone and only boundary tones.

Stefanie Flaig and Sabine Zerbian, 01.-03.09.16, Canterbury: "Rising intonation in statements of German speakers of English as a Foreign Language." Poster presentation at the conference Tone and Intonation in Europe (TIE 2016).

Nadja Schauffler, 02.10.2015, University of Stuttgart: "The role of rhythm in the prosodic realisation of focus." Poster presentation in the context of the workshop on Modeling Variability in Speech.

Giuseppina Turco, Nadja Schauffler, Sabine Zerbian and Arndt Riester, 02.10.2015, University of Stuttgart: Poster Presentation "Speaker- and context-dependent cues in the prosodic marking of contrastive topics in German." (in the context of the workshop on Modeling Variability in Speech)

Nadja Schauffler, 02.12.2014, University of Cologne: "Prosody-inherent factors affecting pitch accent placement - deaccentuation of foci due to pitch accent clashes." (talk at the workshop Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives on the Interrelation of Syntax, Semantics and Prosody.)

Sabine Zerbian, 13.11.2014, University of Mannheim: "Focus marking in varieties of South African English." (invited talk)

Giuseppina Turco and Elisabeth Delais-Roussarie, 14.-18.09.2014, Singapore: "A crosslinguistic and acquisitional perspective on French intonational rises." (talk presentation at the 15th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Interspeech)

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Activities

22.03. - 23.03.2016: Workshop on Prosody and Information Structure (PINS) at the University of Stuttgart, more information here

11.12.2015: Workshop on Rhythm in Language at the University of Stuttgart, more information here

01.10.- 02.10.2015: Organizing Committee Workshop on Modeling Variability in Speech at the University of Stuttgart, more information here

03.09.- 18.09.2015: Data collection, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg